Just wanted to let you all know about Domi over at Retrokit who , apart from other things, makes Conversion kits for Meng model/Roqovan World war Toon tanks. I’m going to be using them for my after school club project. The kits themselves are neatly cast in resin, and are designed to fit, in this case, The M4 Sherman.

At the moment you have a choice of M4A3 Sherman Conversion and Rocket Launcher “Calliope” Sherman. Other releases are planned for January, and later in year, with a KV1 Turret, Sturmtiger, Tiger II Henschel Turret confirmed. If you want to keep up with news on these and other releases head over to the retrokit face book page

A lot of other Sherman conversions are planned, and one can only imagine things like JagdTigers, and several different versions based on the new Toon Panzer III model, like a StuG III that might also be on their way at some point…..either way I just can’t wait! I’m going to have to buy a whole lot more World War Toon Tanks just to keep up!

I have 4 weeks before clubs start again, so plenty of time to assemble both versions. I’m sure club members will be fairly interested in converting their kits, a lot of them have been busy buying additional models to add to the Sherman they get in the club….and no doubt santa has also been busy sourcing the new T34’s and Panzer III’s!

So over the next 4 weeks i will be updating my progress as I complete work on these 2 new kits, so watch for updates. but for today I’m going to do a little bit of prep work and remove the resin parts from their sprue, and tidy them up a bit, I’m also intending to have a bash at making some scratch built rockets for the launch tubes on the Calliope version!

Everything in the Photos are included…..and many hours have been spent painting up the figures especially for the sale, only just finished in time! I don’t think I’ll ever be doing this again, so likely your only chance!

We have a set of Meng model Tanks we use for Gaming in the club, The rules we use are a stripped down version of Battlefront games “Tanks” rules, we modified the stats cards for easy reference and made our own set of tokens, rulers etc. I also made some fire markers from cotton wool balls to place on destroyed tanks.

Really have to put in a big plug here for battlefront games rules, they worked fantastically well for what we wanted, easy to pick up and fast, which is essential when you only have around 45 minutes playing time.

The first set of photos are mixture of several differnt games over several weeks using our 8 Shermans and 4 Tigers. You’ll notice the Sherman Players like to bunch up and take cover for protection! Results were pretty even, sometimes the Tigers won, sometimes it was the Shermans

We decided to take our game to the School Christmas fair to raise some funds as well as interest in our little group. We trimmed the rules a little bit more, the objective being for the Sherman players to knock out the Tiger Tank, the person that did so would be entered into a prize draw…for a model kit! The Tiger Tank was eventually knocked out each time…not surprising since it had to take on 4-6 Shermans at a time!

I only had time for a couple of shots……very busy evening!

Our last Club session of the year was a massive tank battle, some of the groups completed models were used alongside all the club models, the battlefield area was about 6ft X 6ft. with some mountains in the middle of the board! it was also the first time I had managed to play the game.

The Shermans (13), plus a KV2 had faced off against 4 Standard Tiger 1’s, one Tiger 1 ace, and a Tiger II. Tigers took some damage but none were actually knocked out in the battle. the Shermans however lost about 8 and the KV2, the remaining tanks were huddled in the middle of the battlefield taking cover and unable to fire at any Tigers for most part of the game! The Tigers split up into two groups and destroyed everything in their path. Time ran out before the battle could be finished but victory was given to the Tigers.

With The first 10 or so weeks of Model club now concluded, the first groups tanks are now all complete. For most of them these were the first model kits they have ever made or painted.

Our club has already inspired several of them to buy further Meng Models, World War Toon Tanks to build at home, and many of them have also taken trips out to the tank Museum at Bovington to see real tanks up close and personal!

Below are photos of all the finished tanks from group one…..second group begins in new year.

Our first Club of the new term was way back in September. We split the group into two managable chunks, Jeremy the headmaster, took the gaming group, and I sorted out the kit construction, and painting side. The first couple of sessions were spent assembling the kits, once everyone had managed this, we looked at some images of actual camouflage schemes to get the general idea, They then went away to design their camo scheme on a print out of a Sherman tank, coloured it in with felt tips, choosing the colours they wanted to use once the painting began.

We were then able to bring in all the paint that was needed from home! Once painting began some of the schemes evolved into something other than the planned scheme, which can sometimes present problems with the colours available.

The important factor here is we wanted them to have free range to choose any colours not just use the recommend Olive drab on the box art. We then also asked them if they had any names they wanted to add to their tank to make it even more unique. While some tanks ended up being fairly standard in terms of normal tank colours, some were very imaginative indeed!